Royals survive vintage Dhoni to go top of the table

The inevitable spin strangle had to happen. If not Moeen, it was Jadeja who brought it all to a screeching halt. The experienced spinner picked up Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson in the same over, bringing in his India spin-twin, Ravichandran Ashwin, who was later dropped by Moeen Ali. The spin strangle was certainly working against Ashwin, who struggled to get going, even though he compensated for it by smashing Akash Singh for two sixes, and then holed out to mid-off later in the same over. However, Buttler had survived all of this, and the threat of him going bonkers at the death loomed.

Moeen Ali, smashed into oblivion by Buttler earlier in the day, cut short Buttler’s innings, knocking him over before he could cut loose at the death, and redeeming himself to some extent. Wickets kept falling at the other end, decelerating the scoring rate, but Shimron Hetmyer dealt a few lusty blows to lift the Royals to 175-8.

The early wicket of the in-form Gaikwad had to be a reason to panic, but that’s simply not how CSK does things. Rahane and Conway laid the platform, albeit falling behind on the required rate, motoring along at 7.5 rpo in the powerplay. The pair found it difficult to pile on the pressure, struggling to regularly find the boundary, the required rate eclipsing the current rate at every stage.

It was always going to be CSK’s spinners vs. RR’s spinners. And the trigger was the dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane, who was trapped in front by Ashwin, trying to sweep. Conway was joined by Dube at the crease, and they both looked less than fluent at the crease, as the required rate touched the 10rpo mark in the 12th over. The next three overs, however, saw a dramatic middle-order collapse, thanks to some skilful spin bowling by the Royals, getting rid of Rahane, Dube, Moeen, Rayudu, and Conway, in a collapse that read 5-35. This brought MS Dhoni to the crease, joining Ravindra Jadeja.

CSK needed 63 off 30. The spinners were all over them. CSK’s number 8 had come in to bat in his 200th game as the franchise’s skipper. The experienced duo played out the spinners and got it down to 40 off the final 2 overs.

Jadeja targeted Jason Holder and hammered him for two sixes and a four in a 19-run over, setting it up for a classic MS Dhoni finish in the final over. Sandeep Sharma was pushed into the cage with Dhoni in the final over, with 21 to win, and the pressure certainly got to the seamer, as he dished out two wides. After nailing a yorker, with 19 required off 5, MS Dhoni picked two low full-tosses (attempted yorkers) and despatched them for sixes to bring it down to 7 off 3. It was then that Sharma gathered himself and bowled three inch-perfect yorkers while also changing around his angle and closed out the game, surviving a last-over Dhoni scare. In the process, he got his side to the top of the table, but denied the home crowd a fairy-tale finish on the occasion of MS Dhoni’s 200th game as CSK captain.